TOUGH RULES ARE NEEDED TO GUARD WATER SUPPLIES

WHEN REGIONAL water managers tentatively approved a 501-acre high-tech industrial park near a Palm Beach County well field, their warning could not have been stronger -- the county is sailing into uncharted and dangerous waters.

South Florida Water Management District officials had no legal power to block what they consider an unwise development and rezoning decision by county commissioners. In lieu of that, the district will do what it can to ensure that hazardous materials used in electronics research at Gould Inc.'s $263- million development do not infiltrate underground water supplies. The safeguards they are demanding are among the toughest ever applied to a South Florida development, as they should be.

Even so, two of the district's seven board members voted against approval and more board members expressed severe reservations, because the project is only 2,600 feet from a well field and sits atop the Turnpike Aquifer -- the county's main source of drinking water.

If Gould Inc., one of the nation's largest manufacturers of electronics and industrial equipment, had proposed a similar development in Broward or Dade counties, it probably never would have received county approval. Both counties have well field protection ordinances that regulate industrial development near well fields. Palm Beach County has no similar law, although one has been proposed by a coalition of county water utility directors.

For that lack of regulation and lack of concern, district officials gave some well-deserved criticism to county government, which until recently has exhibited little initiative in water protection issues.

But a commission majority -- Chairman Ken Adams, Dorothy Wilken and Ken Spillias -- have expressed support of a well field protection ordinance. The commission should move as rapidly as possible to adopt such a law, with provisions similar to Broward County's that require the relocation of some businesses that handle hazardous materials in close proximity to a public well field.

At the same time, the South Florida Water Management District should move quickly to develop a similar regional rule that would prohibit the use and storage of hazardous substances in areas that are critical to public water supply.

Gould Inc. got its development approvals basically because local and regional governments were unprepared to deal with the new challenge of high-tech industry. No others should be allowed to cross under the line because the region's future health and economic viability depend upon an untainted water supply.